IPL 2019: 4 players who were surprisingly released by their respective teams

The deadline for the teams to finalize the list of players to be retained ended yesterday. There have been some interesting transactions between the teams recently, such as Shikhar Dhawan’s transfer to Delhi Daredevils in exchange for three players and Quinton de Kock moving to Mumbai Indians.

The teams also finalized the players to be released yesterday. While Kings XI Punjab cleaned their squad by retaining only nine players, the defending champions Chennai Super Kings released just three of their players for the auctions.

Some teams surprised everyone by retaining and releasing players who weren’t expected to be. Here, we list four players who were not expected to be released:

1. Axar Patel

Axar Patel

The 24-year-old bowling all-rounder hailing from Gujarat has been a regular player in the Kings XI Punjab squad. Chipping in with a couple of wickets every other match and slogging a few big hits in the death overs made him an important asset.

However, he had a mediocre season in 2018, failing to contribute much with either bat or ball. The arrival of Ravichandran Ashwin and Mujeeb Ur Rahman increased the pressure on Axar, which could be the reason for his release.

Kings XI Punjab, who look set to revamp the team considering they retained only nine players, could have retained Axar who has come good when the team needed him. It will be interesting to see who picks Axar in the upcoming auctions now that he is a free agent.

2. Alex Hales

Alex Hales

Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered a mighty blow earlier this year when David Warner was banned for one year. The English opener Alex Hales, who came in as replacement, played his part at times although he could not fill the shoes of Warner.

The tall batsmen provided some fiery starts and stitched together a couple of match-winning partnerships with Shikhar Dhawan in the games he got to play.

With Dhawan traded to Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers are in need of an explosive opener at the top and hence Hales was expected to be retained. However, the imminent arrival of Warner and the limitations over the number of foreign players could be some of the reasons for his release.

Hales would hope to find a buyer in the auctions and makes a bigger mark in next year's IPL.

3. Mohammed Shami

Mohammad Shami

Mohammed Shami, who is a leading bowler for India, has been a bit off-color when it comes to the IPL. But despite his injuries and lack of form, he has been the leading bowler at Delhi Daredevils.

In the absence of Kagiso Rabada this year, Shami was heading the attack with Trent Boult. Considering he is a genuinely quick Indian pacer, everyone expected him to be retained.

The return of Kagiso Rabada and the availability of numerous young pacers in the pool could be some of the reasons for his release. Being injury prone could also hurt him in the auctions, and it remains to be seen if he can find a buyer.

4. Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman is another pacer whose release from the team was not expected.

After a stunning debut with Sunrisers Hyderabad, he moved to Mumbai Indians last year. He was expected to be lethal along with Mitchell McClenaghan, but that wasn’t the case as the batsmen decoded him and he failed to get too many wickets.

However, he wasn’t so bad as to be released when compared to the players retained by the team. While the presence of McClenaghan, lack of surprise factor and the foreigner tag that he carries could be the possible reasons for his release, it would have been a wise move if Mumbai Indians had retained Mustafizur as a backup player.